Sisters
by Haraya
Summary: On the day her Levi-niisan saved her, the skies were crying. Now, once again with rain-kissed hands, Isabel shares comfort with a young stranger as they talk about their respective reasons to fight and live. Set in 'A Choice with No Regrets.' Oneshot. Complete


**Author's Note**: This is my first story as a sixteen-year-old (I don't understand why this number is so overrated. I'm ancient, not reading a new, sweet-smelling book that for once isn't secondhand for the first time in seven consecutive birthdays and Christmases and instead have Armin's hair with side swept bangs; how did this even…). I know, the title and summary's misleading and miles away from being not lame, but…

I adore Isabel Magnolia to bits and I'm so happy my brain finally decided that it's time for her to take the spotlight BUT WHY THE PFFT DID IT HAVE TO TAKE HER DEATH FOR THIS TO HAPPEN. (Fun Fact: I was supposed to be named "Isabelle" [close enough, I guess?] by my mother but an older cousin beat me to it [Yes, Ate Belle, _ikaw nga_, grrrrrrrasdfghjkl, muahahaha, joke _lang_, peace _tayo_, _wala kang kasalanan_, aheehee] so I had to be stuck with a boy's name taken from a tree [Daddy why].)

I've been looking on Wikipedia for some info on the official merch (because that's all I'm ever gonna get – the info, not the merch *jumps off a building and into Marco's arms [get it? GET IT? Oh, never mind]*) and learned that there are a lot of awesome bonus items that come with the limited edition copies of the Blu-ray volumes including a special manga series about random pairs of characters having conversations while taking shelter from the rain (on behalf of us penniless foreigners who are only ever capable of being able to afford the aforementioned treasures and understanding the Japanese language in our wildest dreams, somebody please, please, PLEASE be kind enough to provide scans and downloadable online mkv/mp4 forms of the bonus items with English translations, we beg of you! Please help a fellow fan in need! If you do, we'll love you _forever_. Honest.). I've long wanted to do a time-bridge fic and this motif seemed to be perfect for what I had in mind. I'm quite proud of how it turned out. I hope you like it.

For my soul brothers: _Kuya _Augie, first _nii_-_san_ (hart hart_, pahiram ulit kami nung _PS2, ahahaha!), Jom, almost twin (like, my nose is, like, so blooding right now, omaygash), and Nikko, forever _ototou _(search _mo sa_ Google _para masaya_).

P.S.: By the way, I just wanted y'all to know that **_Wings _**is NOT discontinued. I began Eren's chapter before the other two ever since I finished the episodes and caught up with the manga which was literally more than seven months ago and its de-cheesy-fication and conclusion-ization is still on-going (and will probably go on until I get my mitts on the fools who OBLITERATED the English dub, which is never *jumps off a building and into – never mind*). However, I've set a deadline for myself, October 16 this year (my Shingeki no Kyojin Fangirl-Self's first birthday and Erwin's), so it may come around sometime before or after that.

* * *

**Sisters**

The clouds poured down and they fell hard. The air felt grey to the touch and colored everything in drowsiness and fuzz. It was Isabel's first rainfall – the first she experienced on the surface, anyway – and she was standing beneath the roof of the waiting shed, gathering droplets in her upturned palms. When they were full, she took a slow sip then smacked her lips together. The water felt wonderful in her tongue and mouth and throat; it tasted fresh and free.

She finished the rest of her drink in one go. She wiped her damp hands on her sweaty neck, rebuilt her cup, and placed it beneath the great faucet that was the sky. She looked up and down the street. There were people everywhere, making a fuss over avoiding the rain's sharp, sweet fingers, and they ran and jostled and disturbed the budding puddles. If everybody thought the way she did and had chosen to dance on the spot instead of scurrying off to their houses like rats in the light to escape a downpour as lovely as this one, Isabel thought, the world would be a much better place. She would have done so herself at the first sign of a sky-sent drop but Farlan was such a sissy who always needed her helping hand and the idea of burdening Levi by being sick was nothing short of preposterous so she forced herself to sigh with content instead in her dry shade, not that that needed much effort.

But it wasn't just her shade, it was theirs. She was sharing it with a child, possibly a little more than half her age, with sleek black hair and a red scarf nuzzled to her nose. She was trembling against the wall like the rain was out to get her and there were translucent little pearls hovering at the tips of her eyes.

"You okay, kid?" asked Isabel after finishing her second handful of water. The little girl jumped at the sound of her voice and did a little jerk that might have been a nod. "You sure?" insisted the older girl. The kid's face shrank lower into her scarf.

Isabel wiped her damp hands on her pants and produced a handkerchief from her pocket with one smooth tug (Levi had made it clear that no little sister of his was to be without one and although for once in her life she agreed with Farlan who also found the older man's penchant for cleanliness ridiculously iffy, she took his words to heart and bought a dozen the moment she could). She made to pull the longhaired lass towards her and wipe her dark eyes but she thought better of it. Something about the quiet look within her obsidian orbs reminded Isabel of her nii-san and she thought of the way he would cringe when someone other than her touched him. She handed the child the patch of cloth.

The pale girl started again but took the handkerchief after the tiniest curtsy of thanks Isabel had ever seen. In a less solemn moment, Isabel might have snickered; if the kid had been given the clothes of a posh doll, the redhead would have mistaken her as a storybook princess. Instead, the taller girl took in her junior's clean skin, her simple handmade clothes, her store-bought red shoes. This was no urchin who belonged to the streets: this was a town child with a home of her own. "Are you lost?" she asked. The girl used her handkerchief in reply. "That's too bad. I'm not from around here either. Don't worry, I'll wait with you 'till your parents come and find you."

Her waiting shed-mate let out a whimper but she had an impressive composure and gallantly tried to hide it by pretending to cough. Isabel knew she heard that sound before – it had come from her own throat many years ago. "I'm sorry," she said, sudden unease forcing her gut to tighten and shut. She took a look at the empty streets chanting the song of falling water and considered how her companion had done all but stuff her palms against her ears. "I'm sorry," she repeated with a softness of tone and voice she never thought she possessed. "Was it raining when it happened?" The girl sniffled violently.

For a moment, Isabel wondered if she should brave the rain and finish her search for her companions just so that she could stop the uncomfortable lump of boiling oil in her throat from accumulating out of control and spilling out of her eyes. And then, she scolded herself for mulling over such blasphemy when here, standing right beside her, was a fellow orphan who needed her comforting words, and needed them now.

She tried hovering over the kid but it was more awkward than she could take so she touched her back to the wall with a silent huff. _I've been a good girl and I've earned my reward, _she thought to no one in particular, _Is 24 hours without a care in the world too much to ask for?_

It was custom of the Scouting Legion to give its soldiers the day before an expedition off in turns and after a whole day of uttering promises through gritted teeth, her trio was allowed the same perk but with shadows looming over their backs, supposedly without their knowledge. It took them exactly five minutes to shake the intruders off and after little discussion, they decided to go north of the headquarters and explore the marketplace south of Wall Rose. Somehow, she got separated from her companions and she'd been having a relatively nice time being lost and window-shopping as she searched for her friends when the skies started falling but now…

"Say," she ventured experimentally. The craziest idea just entered her head and putting it into action was a lot better than allowing the all too familiar barrage of dark words and pictures from the past settle within her. She took a cursory glance at the child and immediately found what she was searching for. "That's a very nice scarf you have there. Did your _nii-san_ give it to you?"

The silver trail that trickled from the kid's eyes came to a complete stop and she turned to gape at Isabel with wide, almost sparkling eyes. The taller girl grinned; she knew she had hit the jackpot. "When I'm upset, I usually touch this necklace, see?" She picked up the ring on the string around her neck and brought it forward for the shorter girl to see. "He gave it to me when we first met. It's made of real silver, like the color of his eyes. That's how I figured your scarf's probably from your nii-san too."

The child stared at the grey loop between Isabel's thumb and forefinger then glanced back at it's owner's similarly round green eyes. "Eren's a month younger than me," she whispered. Her voice was soft and smooth and reminded Isabel of wind song and starry crystalline flowers bursting out of perturbed glass beneath the moon's soothing glow.

"Oh?" said Isabel, glad that her company felt better enough to start whispering. "He's your little brother, then?"

The girl looked at her feet and thought. Then she said, "I don't think of him that way."

Isabel couldn't resist the temptation. "Oh," she said seriously. "I see. He's your boyfriend then, right?"

The dark-eyed kid gasped and her face reddened to such a degree that Isabel had trouble discerning where the visible parts of her face began and where her crimson strip of cloth that surrounded her neck ended. Isabel laughed. "I'm just teasing," she tittered, catching her breath in spasms. "Don't mind me. But you don't feel better enough yet," she said seriously, placing a hand on each lap and leaning forward to look the child in the eye. "I'm sorry. It's mean of me to joke at a time like this. But if it makes you feel better to talk about it, I'd be more than willing to listen." For some reason, the girl looked betrayed, but Isabel understood when she tensed once more and turned away to shake her head and watch her feet.

Isabel retained her position, hoping for the change she knew wouldn't come before giving it up as a bad job and sagging against the wall. "I'm sorry," she muttered. "I suck at these kind of things." She was sure that if she turned around she would find her companion's face blatantly proclaiming sarcastic assent. She sighed. She was hopeless.

The child continued using her handkerchief and wilted against the wall like her. Isabel huffed out a puff of breath and in retrospect, she thought it had been partnered by the tiniest of sighs that wasn't hers at all. She looked at the girl and saw that she was still breathing through her scarf. Her tears didn't drip but they were there.

Isabel gazed up at the roof of the shed and tried picturing the grey blanket that loomed over the world. If saying things only made it worse, she thought that maybe she should try telling them instead. "I lost my parents on a day like this, too," she told the ceiling. Perhaps the little girl had been listening because the sniffing was immediately replaced by silence. "When my mother couldn't work anymore, my father tried to sell me to a brothel. I only understood a few years later. Back then, I just thought he didn't want me anymore so I ran away. I wasn't there when the fire started." She swiped a finger across beneath her nose and sniffed. Her eyes were completely dry. "I was eight. I fought with other kids over edible garbage for a year. There was rain on the day I gave up." She paused and reflected on her words. Somehow, they didn't hurt anymore like the time she told Levi and Farlan. Somewhere during her one-sided conversation with herself, her fingers found the pendant of her necklace.

"That's when he found me," she continued. "He took me in and fed me and washed me and dressed me. And when I asked why, he said he didn't have a reason." Pride filled up her cheeks and light swooped in her chest. She felt a quiet smile stretch her face. "I don't deserve my Nii-san. But he made me feel like I matter, like someone thinks I'm important. Like _he _thinks I'm important. And he does. I'm not scum at all." She stretched and grinned at the world. "It's a tough life but that's okay. I'm loved. I'm Isabel Magnolia, and I'm Levi's little sister."

She remained that way for what felt like one glorious lifetime, smiling until it hurts, until she felt her companion's eyes burning a hole on her face. And when Isabel turned to look at her, still beaming like she was mad, she saw that the little girl's tears were gone and the stars that replaced them said she understood her companion completely, although the ginger was yet to learn why.

"Sorry about that," said Isabel with an apologetic shrug. "Sometimes when _this_ ain't enough," (she had pointed her chin at her necklace at _this_) "I like to talk about him to feel better." She tucked both hands into her pockets and continued. "We've been wandering around here when we got separated. And then it started to rain and I ended up with you." She looked back at the girl and was surprised to see that she was still staring at her very intently. "Not that I mind. You're a good listener."

Isabel stretched again like an upright cat and placed her hands behind her head. She had begun humming tunelessly to the rhythm of the raindrops when a shy voice pulled her back to earth.

"Umm."

The kid was eying her feet with hunched shoulders as if struggling with the words she was about to say. "I… His family adopted me. We came here to shop, and... there was a strong wind." Her grip on her scarf tightened and Isabel spied her toes curling in their mud splashed shoes. "I don't know the way back to their house yet, or where the Vanguard station is. And there are so many people…"

She fidgeted with the tassels of her scarf. "If it makes you feel better then… will it-?"

"F'course it would!" said Isabel cheerily. "We're a lot more alike than I first thought. If it works wonders for me, I'm sure it'll for you, too."

For some reason, the kid looked a little flustered, but she nodded and steadied from her flinching. She turned away and set the distant rain ablaze with her eyes. She touched her scarf to her nose and breathed. "My parents were killed on a day like this," she murmured quietly after a pause. "I watched it happen. I was so cold and it was like the sun had died." Isabel had hushed a breath at the word "killed" and now released it to make way for the ice that flooded her lungs and stayed. It was a familiar feeling but no matter how many times she felt it before, she knew she would never get used to the sensation.

"I was kidnapped… and he rescued me. He killed two of them but the third one almost…" The tranquil blaze in the rain that Isabel saw in her mind's eye burned a hard black and started spitting out sparks. "This world is cruel. Only the winners are allowed to survive. If we don't fight… we'll never win."

Isabel felt the gravity of her words, and she sensed them churning within her pulse. She had learned of those sixteen sentences ever since she took her first breath and she did not expect such a young child who lives on the surface to understand what it meant. It seems that not everyone who was touched by the sun for a majority of their lives was a spoiled pig-bastard after all.

"But my parents were dead," continued the younger girl. "My life was over. I wasn't numb. There was just a pain that wouldn't stop. And then…" Isabel watched with hushed breath the transformation that occurred in the girl's face: in one second, her dark eyes were glittering, her back was straighter and her head was held higher. The small smile that graced her lips was beautiful. "He gave me warmth. And he took me home. And as long as I have somewhere to go home to…" She didn't need any more words. Isabel understood that nothing was left to be said and she knew that they both knew that silence was more than enough.

As if on cue, the pattering of the rain lightened and a ray of light fell in front of both of them. Now, the girl's scarf was resting on her neck, and with her whole face exposed, Isabel saw that she was indeed very pretty. "Well, I want you to know that I'm happy for you," said Isabel with a smile that very quickly bloomed into a grin. She felt within herself that she meant it.

"Thank you," said the other girl with a tinier smile that was just as sincere as the other's. "And thank you also for listening to me."

"No problem," said Isabel. "It's nothing… erm…" she wavered, gesticulating as a way of prompting the child for a name.

"Mikasa!" rang out a foreign voice. The little girl turned to face her caller so fast that Isabel could have sworn she heard her neck snap in half. "Eren!" cried the child as the brown-haired boy looked over his shoulder and yelled, "Hey Armin! Tell Hannes and my mother that I found her!" And when he was finished talking, he ran.

Isabel found herself out of the shadows and bathing in the sunlight. She had followed the kid as she ran towards her brother and almost giggled when the boy stumbled a few steps backward as his sister lunged for him with open arms. He wrapped his arms around her the moment he recovered too, though, and Isabel had the fleeting vision of a silver-eyed man cradling a fiery-haired tangle of skin and bones, whispering words of comfort and love to her ears as she clung to him with all her might and life.

Her heart galloped violently and a gust of light rushed up her throat and stung her eyes. She bit on a knuckle to stop the tears from flowing but the joy wouldn't stop and before she could summon the strength to hold herself back, the mirth within her exploded. Sheer joy tumbled out of her smiling mouth in smooth tremors and silken jerks of breath and voice: she laughed with all her heart, for the happiness the sight of the siblings gave her was something she couldn't just bottle up with stretched lips, it was the kind that one had to let out in order to prevent themselves from dying. She wouldn't mind if even that happened at that moment, though, she was much too delighted with the universe to be frightened of anything.

When most of her glee had run out, she approached them, fighting to keep her mouth from warping once again into a vent for her delight. She looked the boy in the eye and said in the sternest tone she could muster, "Hey. You're Eren aren't ya?"

"Yes," said the boy, looking up at her so quizzically that he almost looked rude. Isabel took in the way he slightly turned his back towards her as if shielding his foster sister from her intimidating figure. "And who might you be?"

"I'm your sister's older sister," she said, towering over him on the tips of her toes with her hands on her hips. "and if you ever lose her like that again or let her get hurt, I'll have you know you'll have me and my Nii-santo answer to."

"Oh, yes, Isabel. Go on ahead and keep treating me like an afterthought and maybe someday I'll teach you how to spell it." Isabel heard her neck bones crackle as she turned her head to yell at Farlan, who had his hands on his hips and his signature _Tssk, how troublesome_ look on his face, but she stopped short at the sight of Levi approaching her. "Hey, Nii-san!" she cried, blissfully ignorant of the murder in his eyes. "Can you do me a favor and beat this boy up for me someday?"

"Where the hell have you been?" he hissed dangerously. "If you've gotten yourself hurt-"

"Wait a minute," interjected the green-eyed boy. "Why do I get to be beaten up? I did nothing wrong!"

"But you loosened my scarf, Eren," protested his sister, letting her face part company with his shoulder to look at him. "You said I'd have a heat stroke even though it was windy…"

The boy's tan cheeks glowed scarlet as he spluttered and spared the three adults a quick, worried glance. "Yeah, well, I-!" He turned his head left and right, searching for arsenal to fire against his sister's dissent. His wide eyes found Isabel's equally green ones. Turning back to his sister, he demanded, "What did _she_" (here he very rudely jabbed a finger to the direction of Isabel's face) "mean when she said she's your older sister?"

Isabel was about to step forward and clout the boy on the head but she paused when her brother began talking. "Sister?" Levi asked Isabel, carefully regarding the pale, dark-haired child with narrow eyes like his. In another time and place, Isabel would have paid to know if the girl was Levi's niece or some other long lost relative.

"There are _two _of you?" asked Farlan, aghast. "Don't tell me we're taking another chatterbox home with us – say, but this one's cuter," he said, lowering himself to level his eyes with the little girl's. "Maybe we should leave you with her brother instead, Isabel, and –"

"Can it, Farlan!" Isabel screeched.

"It was just a suggestion," Farlan murmured.

"No one's taking anyone anywhere," said the little boy firmly with cheek that certainly shouldn't belong to a kid as small as he was, gripping his sister's hand tightly and placing her behind him.

"Alright, kid, keep your hair on or you won't grow any taller than Lev- than you already are," said Farlan, who changed course the moment he laid eyes on the older man's poisonous glare.

"Whatever," muttered the little boy irritably. Isabel thought the scowl he sent the bane of her life was cute and she suddenly found herself liking the boy a lot more than she did five seconds ago. "Mikasa," he told his sister, "enough jokes. Let's go home now."

"But we aren't joking, Eren," insisted the girl, resisting the pull of the hand on her wrist with surprising strength which sent her brother ricocheting back to her side. "She's… she really is my sister."

She smiled at the bit of the ground in front of Isabel with slightly pink cheeks. "Thank you, Isabel-senpai," she whispered, handing the older girl her borrowed handkerchief.

"Keep it," said Isabel, closing her hand around Mikasa's. "Lil' Sis!" she continued with a grin. The girl beamed back as Isabel rumpled her hair and when she straightened, she instantly wished she had let the moment last a little longer.

"Now, when you kids grow up and decide to join the military, make sure you enlist under" (she performed a salute right in time for her what she was about to say next) "Commander Isabel Magnolia of the Scouting Legion!"

Farlan scoffed and Isabel saw him roll his eyes up to the heavens in her mind's eye. "You're going too far," he said, pulling on the back of collar and dragging her backwards as he walked. "Walk, dammit, we're leaving before you say anything illegal!" he yelled over her shrieked protests. She was struggling so violently she almost didn't catch the light that swept over Mikasa's brother's face.

"The Scouting Legion?" repeated Eren, his aggressive tone completely undone and replaced by one of unabashed admiration and awe.

Isabel stopped short, startled by what she had said and then laughed, jogging to catch up to Levi, who had swatted Farlan's hand away and in turn, pulled her upwards to an upright position. She turned back to look at the two children and waved. "Take good care of her, Eren! I'll see you, Mikasa!" she called out.

The little girl scooted closer to her brother as he answered with a confused but determined "I will!" She raised a hand in farewell. "You too, Nee-chan!"

Isabel guffawed and flashed a thumbs-up. "Isabel-nee-chan": it didn't sound half as bad as she thought it would, in fact, it sounded wonderful.

She grabbed Levi's arm to make sure she didn't trip and didn't let her eyes leave Mikasa's until they turned the corner. Isabel imprinted her soul sister's face in her mind. Someday, she knew, they would meet again, and they would both laugh at the sight of each other and run into each other's arms.

"What did you mean by all that?" Levi asked from beside her.

"Nothing, Nii-san," she said, shooting her fingers through the gaps between his and curling them against the back of his palm. He scoffed at her answer but returned the pressure on her hand anyway.

"Let's hurry back," said Farlan from Levi's other side. "It looks like another rainstorm's coming."

Isabel looked up at the gathering darkness and felt the heat from her brother's hand enveloping hers warm her heart. "They're not so bad," she said.


End file.
